


Silence is Golden

by Isolus_girl



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alcohol, Cute, Drinking & Talking, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Jack being Jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:22:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26445565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isolus_girl/pseuds/Isolus_girl
Summary: After a tough day, Nine, Rose and Jack all indulge in some hypervodka and end up telling stories.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 9
Kudos: 41





	Silence is Golden

**Author's Note:**

> Set after the events of The Doctor Who book 'The Deviant Strain', although you don't have to have read that to understand this. 
> 
> Based on the prompt 'truth serum'.
> 
> The Doctor's story is based on a story I heard about the Oxford University colleges when I did a walking tour of Oxford. Rose's story is based on something that actually happened to me when I was at University and Jack's story is just Jack being Jack!
> 
> Beta'd by [Super_Powerful_Queen_Slayyna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/super_powerful_queen_slayyna/works) who also had to put up with my awful grasp of HTML to even get this credit! Any mistakes are all mine.

The three travellers were feeling very cold and wore grim expressions on their faces as they walked through the familiar blue wooden doors. Each of them locked in their own thoughts, remembering what had happened such a short time ago. Sometimes the worst things you can see is human nature. 

As if by design all three headed to the kitchen, desperate for something warm to ease the chill running through their bones. Rose instinctively reached for the kettle, a nice cup of tea uppermost in her mind. The others speechlessly reached for the mugs and the teabags, focussing on the task in front of them instead of the one they had just completed. 

It was only once they were seated that they broke the silence. 

“All those people,” Rose began thoughtfully. “All those years just waiting in one room. An eternal death really.”

“Just a kid, even her own father didn’t want her,” Jack continued, as though he had not heard Rose at all. 

Surprisingly it was the Doctor’s idea to get the hypervodka out, taking on a role that was usually unquestionably Jack’s. As he waggled the bottle invitingly in front of them, both Jack and Rose accepted eagerly, shooting him questioning glances however. 

True to form, the Doctor chose to remain oblivious to them, instead pouring them generous portions. Silently they all raised a glass, each with their own person or people in mind. As though drawing a line under the day, Jack then began telling them the story of his would-be execution, his usual exuberance returning as he progressed. By the end of the story and the first glass, all of them were managing a genuine smile. 

“Jack, I never know whether to believe you or not when you tell stories like that!” Rose laughed. 

“You can’t argue with chemistry, Rose,” Jack deadpanned and the Doctor rolled his eyes. 

“Of course he’s exaggerating, Rose, it’s his way of communicating.” 

“Ooh Doc, you pretend to be so innocent, but we saw how you were with that girl on Mexus 5!” Jack replied as he poured them all another hypervodka, the trauma of the day starting to melt away as the buzz of the drink began. 

“Okay, okay boys. Tell ya what, tell me about an embarrassing situation that happened when you were drunk!” 

Jack and the Doctor looked equally scandalised. 

“I’ve never done anything embarrassing!” the Doctor exclaimed.

“How can I choose just one!” Jack exclaimed at the same time. All three of them laughed. 

“You first then, Doctor, give Jack time to narrow down to just one.”

Jack was holding up quite well to the two hypervodkas he had consumed (they didn’t last long once placed in front of Jack); Rose was starting to become a little bit giggly, but the Doctor was more relaxed than Jack or Rose had ever seen him. That became even more apparent when the story he began to tell was about being a student at the House of Lungbarrow. They both exchanged a happy glance; they had never heard him talk so casually about his planet before. 

“When I was at the Academy, we had different houses. I was in the House of Lungbarrow. I had some friends, but all of us were a little bit rebellious. Back then, believe it or not, I wasn't a ringleader. Things happened later that firmed up my loyalties, but then we were just like any other students on any other planet. Ready for a laugh and rivals with the other houses. Now I had a friend in this other house - Oakdown. Koschei, his name was. We used to play pranks on each other. He had just pulled off a spectacular one with his friends where he had changed our house banners to Oakdown ones. All of us had decided we were going to have our revenge. We spent weeks trying to come up with ideas.” he broke off then and smiled fondly for a moment. It wasn’t unusual to see him smile, but it was unusual to see him so relaxed, his leather jacket enclosed shoulders were less tense than they had ever seen. 

When he started again, his tone had changed. He was no less relaxed, but his words had a sarcastic edge to them. “One night, one of the lads got hold of some alcohol. Strictly forbidden in the Academy, mind you. Us Time Lords were above such cheap pleasures. We had eliminated the need for quick thrills when we created the looms. Unfortunately, as I said, we thought of ourselves as rebels and wanted to try it,” he snorted softly, “I’m sure we weren’t the first or the last to smuggle alcohol in, but we thought we were.” 

Jack grinned madly at this thought, “I didn’t know you had it in you Doc, smuggling alcohol, drinking it in secret.” 

“Oh Jack, I’m 900 years old and you think I’ve never had a secret drink? Smuggling alcohol was just the start of it, that night. Once we’d had a drink of course, all of our well crafted ideas went out the window and we decided it would be a great idea to steal Oakdown’s mascot. It was a sheep - of sorts. They had genetically engineered it so it had a much longer life span and other alterations, but it was essentially a sheep. Just like that pig the Slitheen put in that spaceship, Rose.”

Rose looked mildly cross at this and Jack looked confused, but both let the Doctor continue uninterrupted. 

“The stealing was relatively easy. I’ve always been good at infiltration and some of the lads knew the layout of the building well. It was, after all, a friendly rivalry. No, the problem was, what should we do with the sheep once we had it? If it was found anywhere in Lungbarrow, it would lead directly back to us. It wouldn’t be a difficult step from there to realise we had been drinking.”

“What did you do then?” Rose asked impatiently. 

“We borrowed a TARDIS and returned it to Earth. Between us, we had just about enough knowledge of how to fly it to get us there and back. As far as I know, they never did find the sheep and they never could prove it was us who had done it.”

“That shouldn’t surprise me. Borrowing a TARDIS and rescuing a sheep. You’re still my Doctor,” Rose replied. Jack shot her a look and she went red when she realised what she had said, but the Doctor didn’t appear to notice. She grabbed her drink that Jack had just topped up to hide her red face. 

“Is it my turn?” Jack asked eagerly. He was only just showing signs of drinking now, just behind the other two in his levels of tipsiness. He didn’t wait for a reply before launching into his story. 

“I was training at the Time Agency - close to graduating. We had just succeeded in a big mission, so a group of us went to a bar to celebrate. There was this gorgeous girl - one thing led to another and I ended up in her room. We were just getting down to it when the door opened and in walked my boss. It turned out that the gorgeous girl was his sister. Not wanting to jeopardise my graduation, I ran naked through the halls. When he caught me, I thought I was done for, until he gave me a kiss that left me weak at the knees. He was obviously persuaded by the sight of me with no clothes on. I have that effect on people. We had the most amazing evening and I graduated top of my class.”

“Are you really embarrassed by that, Jack?” the Doctor quizzed, with just the slightest slur to his words. 

“Only that I didn't realise how irresistible I was sooner!” Jack winked, smirking. “Come on then, Rose, fair is fair. It’s your turn.”

“But I've never been a student, I dropped out of school at 16.” 

“I’m sure you’ve still done something embarrassing though. You can tell us!”

“Well,” Rose bit her lip thoughtfully for a minute, “there was this one time Keisha, Shareen and I had a few drinks at Shareen’s. We decided to get a bus into town and go clubbin’, but when we got outside, it was snowing. There’s this small park near to the bus stop so we went in there and built snowmen and threw snowballs.” 

Rose laughed a very tipsy giggle. “We made so much noise - we were like children again, excited by a bit of snow. It was probably an hour or so before we realised we were cold and wet and jus’ a mess. Shareen said we could tidy up at hers and then come back for the bus, so we went to leave the park. The gates were locked. They had locked us in! I know we didn’t look at the opening signs, but there was no way they wouldn’t have heard us. I probably could have climbed over the gates, but Shareen and Keisha couldn’t. We had to ring the park keeper to come let us out!” 

Jack was laughing, highly amused. The Doctor looked horrified, although not enough to stop him finishing his third hypervodka. 

“Rose!” he slurred, “So dang’rous. You coulda been hurt!”

“Be careful with your tone there, Doc,” Jack teased, “People might mistake your intentions. They might think you care.”

“O’course, I care. S’ Rose.”

Rose suddenly felt very very sober. The world seemed to hang on a knife edge, waiting for the next words. Even Jack had stopped teasing and looked serious. They all seemed to know the next words were really important. 

“I lo’ Rose. S’a secret Jack. Shhh,” he shushed and let out a very un-Time Lord-like giggle. 

Jack looked at Rose, silently questioning what her next step would be. The fact that she loved the Doctor was the biggest non-secret on the ship. Jack had repeatedly told her the Doctor felt the same way but she had convinced herself they were happy being just friends. Now, this. 

It seemed as though there was only one option open to Rose, so on very wobbly legs, she stood up, walked over to where the Doctor was sitting and kissed her Doctor. Jack quietly let himself out as the Doctor kissed her back.


End file.
